McCarthy started his journey with the Wheeling Speech, in which he claimed to have a list of 205 known Communists working for the State Department. This roused national attention and consequently brought light to the obscure senator. In response, the Tydings Committee hearings were called. Enraged by McCarthy’s accusations of the Democratic administration, many Democratic politicians hoped to use the hearings to discredit him. Though the Tydings Report dismissed the charges a “fraud and a hoax” and that McCarthy’s actions would “divide the American people”, Republicans stated that Tydings was planning a “conspiracy” (Griffith).
McCarthy’s favorite tactic was accusing his critics and opponents of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. The strategy proved successful in many U.S. Senate elections in 1950 such as the Tydings-Butler Race in Maryland. Republican victories made McCarthy “one of the most powerful men in the Senate and was treated with new-found deference by is colleagues” (Cook).
Truman’s administration was often characterized by McCarthy as being soft toward the Communists. Perhaps McCarthy’s most loved target on the administration was George Catlett Marshall, whom McCarthy charged with direct responsibility for the loss of China. In McCarthy’s speech to the Senate, he implied that Marshall was guilty of treason and accused the great man of being part of “a conspiracy”.
It seemed implausible that such a man could make accusation without substantial support. Indeed, McCarthy had support from Catholic communities, “which constituted over one fifth of the national vote”. In the mean time, McCarthy also established close relationship with the Kennedy family. In the 1952 Presidential election approached, Eisenhower was afraid to directly confront McCarthy, for fear of losing Wisconsin. Once Ike was secure in office, his attitude toward McCarthy changed greatly.
McCarthy’s performance as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations showed his last “splendors”. With the help from Roy Cohn and Robert Kennedy, McCarthy managed to make sensational publicized reports, which “destroyed careers of people who were not involved in the infiltration of [the U.S.] government” (Collins).
The 16 points established the direction of the revolution: crusade on “old customs, old culture, old habits, and old ideas”. This led the Red Guards into believing that they had a duty in destroying anything traditional. From August 1966, numerous religious buildings and historical artifacts were destroyed or damaged. But their persecution on relics of the past could only be judged as tame when compared to their attacks on people. They imposed horrific verbal and physical attacks on anyone who showed the slightest signs of “counter-revolution”. Often times, scholars, teachers, landlords from the past, and anyone who was related to them served as targets. There were several kinds of tortures: beating with fists, clubs, or kicking; forcing the victims to wear dunce hats; making the targets wear self-condemnatory boards; whipping with copper-buckled leather belts; ransacking the home (Wang). Some of the tortures resulted in killings, while some resulted in suicides, which were escape routs to avoid beatings and humiliation. With the nation in a state of chaos, the authorities risked being labeled as “counter revolutionary” should they step up. As the national police chief Xie Fuzhi put, “Don't say it is wrong of them to beat up bad persons: if in anger they beat someone to death, then so be it”. In any case, the Chairman himself saw the signs of violence as symbols of true revolution and issued a public notice, preventing “all police intervention in Red Guard tactics and actions”.
With the nation’s top leaders as backup, the Red Guards’ actions escalated. In February 1967, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao, (Both were in the inner most circle of CR committee, with close personal ties with Mao.) insisted that the CR be extended to the military. When their suggestions were turned down by the military leaders, who foresaw the danger of factionalism, the left wing denounced the generals as “counter revolutionary”. In July, Jiang Qing permitted the Red Guards to replace the People's Liberation Army if necessary. The Red Guards began to loot army facilities. This led to “violent conflict between the Red Guards and the military in several areas”. The worst resulted in a small scale civil war in and around Wuhan, which ended with the dismissal of the commander of the military region, indicating a victory on the Red Guards side.
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McCarthy’s favorite tactic was accusing his critics and opponents of being Communists or Communist sympathizers. The strategy proved successful in many U.S. Senate elections in 1950 such as the Tydings-Butler Race in Maryland. Republican victories made McCarthy “one of the most powerful men in the Senate and was treated with new-found deference by is colleagues” (Cook).
Truman’s administration was often characterized by McCarthy as being soft toward the Communists. Perhaps McCarthy’s most loved target on the administration was George Catlett Marshall, whom McCarthy charged with direct responsibility for the loss of China. In McCarthy’s speech to the Senate, he implied that Marshall was guilty of treason and accused the great man of being part of “a conspiracy”.
It seemed implausible that such a man could make accusation without substantial support. Indeed, McCarthy had support from Catholic communities, “which constituted over one fifth of the national vote”. In the mean time, McCarthy also established close relationship with the Kennedy family. In the 1952 Presidential election approached, Eisenhower was afraid to directly confront McCarthy, for fear of losing Wisconsin. Once Ike was secure in office, his attitude toward McCarthy changed greatly.
McCarthy’s performance as the chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations showed his last “splendors”. With the help from Roy Cohn and Robert Kennedy, McCarthy managed to make sensational publicized reports, which “destroyed careers of people who were not involved in the infiltration of [the U.S.] government” (Collins).
With the nation’s top leaders as backup, the Red Guards’ actions escalated. In February 1967, Jiang Qing and Lin Biao, (Both were in the inner most circle of CR committee, with close personal ties with Mao.) insisted that the CR be extended to the military. When their suggestions were turned down by the military leaders, who foresaw the danger of factionalism, the left wing denounced the generals as “counter revolutionary”. In July, Jiang Qing permitted the Red Guards to replace the People's Liberation Army if necessary. The Red Guards began to loot army facilities. This led to “violent conflict between the Red Guards and the military in several areas”. The worst resulted in a small scale civil war in and around Wuhan, which ended with the dismissal of the commander of the military region, indicating a victory on the Red Guards side.
How did they fall?